NEW ORLEANS--For the second straight year Emily Lipari (Greenvale, N.Y.) has been named a cross country All-American, as the honors were released Monday afternoon by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA). Lipari is coming off a fifth place individual finish at the NCAA Championships last weekend.

Lipari was the top runner for Villanova in each of her six races this season and was in peak form during the postseason meets. She was the individual runner-up at the BIG EAST Championships earlier this month and followed up that performance by winning the individual title at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional. Her race at the national meet this past Saturday, in frigid temperatures and on a slow, wet track, was one of the best of her career.

This is the sixth straight season that the Wildcats have qualified as a team for the NCAA Championships and Lipari moved up 20 spots from where she finished at the national meet last year. She wound up crossing the finish line with a time of 20:10.8 on the modified 6,000 meter course, which was modified with new starting box locations due to the wet and muddy conditions. Lipari was the first BIG EAST runner to finish and is one of five All-Americans from the conference.

In addition to receiving her second All-America accolade Lipari was also named the Mid-Atlantic Region Athlete of the Year and received All-Mid Atlantic Region honors for the fourth consecutive year. She also earned All-BIG EAST recognition for the third time and during the season was a two-time BIG EAST Athlete of the Week. The weekly awards came after Lipari was the individual champion at the Main Line Invitational and also following a sixth place finish at the Paul Short Run.

Lipari closed out her collegiate cross country career at the NCAA Championships and will also be entering her final year of eligibility in both indoor and outdoor track. Including all three seasons she is now a seven-time All-American, nine-time BIG EAST champion and 15-time All-BIG EAST performer during her Villanova career.

Wildcats head coach Gina Procaccio has now coached her Villanova student-athletes to All-America honors 75 times, including 18 times in cross country. Lipari is the sixth cross country runner that Procaccio has guided to multiple All-America honors and joins a list that includes Amanda Marino, Bogdana Mimic, Marina Muncan, Sheila Reid and Ali Smith. Procaccio was named the Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year this season after leading the Wildcats to the team title at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional for the fourth time in the past five years.